Archaeologists puzzle over mystery woman in early Christian cemetery

Buried beside a stunning blue glass drinking bowl, the woman may have been the first interred at the Roman site, with others eager to be near her in the afterlife.

By Marjan Žiberna

Excavations beneath Gosposvetska Street in downtown Ljubljana revealed remains of the Roman settlement of Emona, which would eventually become the modern capital of Slovenia.

Photograph by Arne Hodalič and Katja Bidovec

When a large construction project was launched on Gosposvetska Street
in downtown Ljubljana in August 2017, Slovenian archaeologists in this
ancient city naturally anticipated some interesting discoveries.
But what they didn’t expect to find was an unusual glimpse into an early
Christian community, and the important—and as yet unknown—woman its members
chose to spend their afterlives close to.

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This 1,700-year-old transparent blue glass bowl, a little more than eight inches in diameter, was found buried next to the woman at the center of the cemetery. Its Greek inscription reads: "Drink to live forever, for many years!"

Photograph by Arne Hodalič and Katja Bidovec

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Jewelry found in the sarcophagus of a six-year-old girl features two bracelets, one of solid gold and the other of dark glass. Around her neck she wore a simple necklace of gold rings and small glass beads, and one of her fingers bore a gold ring with a green stone.

Photograph by Arne Hodalič and Katja Bidovec

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A necklace of gold and glass beads adorned a woman buried in a simple grave beneath Gosposvetska Street some 1,700 years ago.

Photograph by Arne Hodalič and Katja Bidovec

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Along with the blue drinking bowl, the woman in the central burial was buried with two bracelets of shiny jet.

Photograph by Arne Hodalič and Katja Bidovec

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A coin from the fourth century A.D., featuring a she-wolf with Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome, was discovered during the excavations.

Photograph by Arne Hodalič and Katja Bidovec

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Dr. Žiga Šmit stands next to a linear accelerator that can analyze the chemical makeup of artifacts. An analysis of the bowl suggests it was manufactured somewhere in the eastern Mediterranean.

Photograph by Arne Hodalič and Katja Bidovec

Tap images for captions

The capital of this small central European country was established as
the Roman settlement of Emona some
2,000 years ago, populated by thousands of colonists driven out of northern
Italy by land shortages, and joined by veterans of the wars that helped
to establish the Empire. From previous excavations in the area, the archaeologists
knew that part of a Roman cemetery likely lay under Gosposvetska Street,
and that more ancient graves would be uncovered.

More than 300 burials have been discovered beneath Gosposvetska Street, providing scientists with the opportunity to better understand how the residents of Roman Emona lived and died.

Photograph by Arne Hodalič and Katja Bidovec

The excavations ultimately revealed a late-Roman cemetery complex containing
more than 350 burials—ranging from simple graves and sarcophagi to family
mausoleums—centered around the burial chapel of what appears to be a very
important woman, according to Slovenian archaeologist Andrej Gaspari.
The local Christian community flourished after the last major state persecution
under Emperor Diocletian in the early 300s, and ended only with the destruction
of Emona by the Huns in the fifth century A.D.

Only the wealthy citizens of Emona could afford to be buried in sarcophagi, which were chiseled from limestone quarried from Moravče, about 20 miles to the east.

Photograph by Arne Hodalič and Katja Bidovec

The most stunning artifact recovered beneath Gosposvetska Street was a
transparent blue glass bowl found next to the woman’s body. The 1,700-year
old vessel is decorated on the outside with grapes, and vine leafs and
tendrils. A Greek inscription on the inside of the bowl instructs the owner
to “Drink to live forever, for many years!”

This exquisite drinking bowl could have been used in both regular daily
life as well as for burial ceremonies, and an analysis of its chemical
composition points to its manufacture somewhere in the eastern Mediterranean
region. The grapevine decorations have their role in the Christian Eucharist
and Communion, but have their origins in motifs associated with Dionysus,
the pagan god of wine and ecstasy.

Archaeologists are also interested in how the woman’s tomb developed over
time. It seems that possibly within a decade of her burial, her square
chapel was demolished and a larger (30-by-40-foot) structure was built
to enclose her tomb. Around the new structure and inside it, Emona’s Christian
community began to practice a burial practice known as ad sanctos,
in which the deceased are interred near the tombs of saints and other remains
considered holy.

And who was the woman honored in the chapel? If archaeologists are correct
that she was the first person buried in the cemetery under Gosposvetska
Street and that her grave played the central role in the necropolis, she
was likely a very distinguished person in Roman Emona. Her social status,
religious affiliation, and place of birth, however, are only a matter of
speculation for now. Planned analysis of her physical remains should hopefully
answer some of those questions in the future. In the meantime, most of
the valuable finds from Gosposvetska Street are now display in the treasury
of the City Museum of Ljubljana.

PUBLISHED January 28, 2019

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